The Art Market in the Southern in the Fifteenth Century Author(s): Lorne Campbell Source: The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 118, No. 877 (Apr., 1976), pp. 188-198 Published by: Burlington Magazine Publications Ltd. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/878374 Accessed: 05-01-2019 07:22 UTC

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This content downloaded from 35.176.47.6 on Sat, 05 Jan 2019 07:22:28 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms EDITORIAL has never had the slightest intention rest, and at a time whenof pricesdoing were relatively full low. justice, in an almost sociological way, to Butthe having variety conceded the Tateand a point range they never of made, 'art' in our time. we may still question whether it is their job to be up to the The Tate believe that they should be up to the minute in minute with their purchases. They show no desire to docu- what they buy. And here they do have a point although they ment our time, so they have not this excuse for blankets and failed to make it. Instead of invoking the incomprehensi- bricks. The situation has radically changed since the 1930's. bility of Constable - and surely the analogy Constable/ Now that the avant garde has become respectable, there are Andre was a little far-fetched? - they would have received a plenty of places where the latest thing can be seen, at Arts more sympathetic hearing from a well-educated audience, Council Exhibitions, at the ICA, in dealers' galleries. There had they cited the case of the Museum of Modern Art in is no longer the same need nowadays to risk freezing in a New York, which over decades courageously acquired all permanent, public collection a mass of effective and showy the latest confections, with the result that, although no work which may well be regarded in a few decades as trash. doubt saddled with much junk, they have achieved two More potent still is the view that, in the management of valuable objectives: first, they have documented the imagi- public collecting in England in 1976, the old criteria of native productions of our century, in a way that will prove personal conviction and taste, based on the interaction of of inestimable value to historians, whatever our grand- sensibility and experience, have no substitute. Even if this children may come to think of some of their acquisitions qua may mean that we shall allow some prize to slip through our art, more effectively than any other institution; secondly, as fingers, surely this is to be preferred to the spectacle of a a result they now have in their possession some considerable 'Rip van With-it' who views every turn in the whirligig of works of art, acquired as it were by chance along with the style with a wild surmise?

LORNE CAMPBELL

The Art Market in the Southern Netherlands in the Fifteenth Century

A study of almost any aspect of early Netherlandish sometimesart irritatingly laconic and almost always obscure in should begin with a lament that the documentary evidence their wording, and may be fully interpreted only by someone available is sufficient to support only the vaguest of general who is both a skilled economic historian and a practised statements. Paradoxically, what documentary evidence linguist is well versed in the terminology and workings of available has been insufficiently exploited by art historians, fifteenth-century legal systems. Sadly I can claim to be and this neglect applies particularly to a group of legal neither; but I hope to be able to draw from this material documents concerning the organization of artistic produc- some indications of how the art market functioned. While tion: guild regulations and records of lawsuits involving my principal concern is with painting and painters, I have artists.' Such documents are often unbelievably prolix, found it convenient to touch on , sculpture and manuscript illumination, for which the evidence is often less sparse. As the fifteenth century is an arbitrary chronological The following abbreviations are used in the footnotes: division, I have discussed early sixteenth-century evidence A.R.B. = Acad6mie royale des sciences, des lettres et des beaux-arts de when it may cast light on fifteenth-century practice. My Belgique, A.S.E.B. = Annales de la Socite' d'Emulation pour l'itude de l'histoire et des antiquites main object, however, is to exploit the published docu- de la Flandre/Handelingen van het Genootschap gesticht onder de benaming 'Socie't mentary evidence in an effort to show how pictures were d'Emulation' te Brugge, sold and bought in the southern provinces of the Burgundian B.C.R.H. = Compte rendu des seances de la Commission royale d'histoire, ou Recueil de Netherlands during the fifteenth century. ses Bulletins, B.N.B. = Biographie nationale de Belgique, I.A.D.N.B. = Inventaire sommaire desarchives dipartementales ante'rieures a 79o, , i. The Sources of Demand Archives civiles, serie B, ed. A. LE GLAY, C. DEHAISNES, J. FINOT, etc., Io vols., In all probability the principal Netherlandish employer [1863-1906], M.G.O.G. = Maatschappij van geschied- en oudheidkunde te Gent, of painters was the Burgundian court, which retained a R.B.A.H.A. = Revue belge d'archeologie et d'histoire de l'art, varying number of artists as court painters and which also VAN EVEN = E. VAN EVEN, 'Monographie de l'ancienne 6cole de peinture de intermittently provided temporary work for a great many Louvain', Messager des sciences historiques [1866], pp.1-55, 241-338; [18671], pp.261-315, 439-97; [i868], pp.454-86; [18691, pp.44-86, I47-95, 277-34I. painters.2 Both the permanently and temporarily employed 1 As far as I am aware, only two studies have been devoted to the organization of artistic production: E. BAES: La peinture flamande et son enseignement sous le rigime des confrdries de St-Luc (M6moires couronnis et m6moires des savants 6trangers publids par l'A.R.B., LIV, fasc. 6), [1882]; and H. FLOERKE: Studien zur niederldndischen Kunst- und Kulturgeschichte, Die Formen des Kunsthandels, methodically. Both authors, however, made extensive use of the notorious das Atelier und die Sammler in den Niederlanden vom 15. - z8. Jahrhundert, Munich documents which are now known to be forgeries, and quite a consider- and Leipzig [1905]. Neither author devoted much space to the fifteenth century, able amount of documentary evidence was overlooked by Baes or has been and Baes mingled flights of imagination with discussions of documents without published since his book was written. citing in any systematic way the published sources on which he was drawing. 2 See the extracts from the Burgundian archives concerning works of art and Floerke relied heavily on the material assembled by Baes, and presented it more artists collected and published by L. DE LABORDE: Les ducs de Bourgogne, Seconde I88

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painters seem usually to have been and engaged elsewhere, and for on theatrical decorative entertainments; or work: banners for ceremonies and to designmilitary sculptures and expeditions, .7 and decorations for banquets, theatrical The patronage entertainments of individuals is much less well documented, and funerals. Though some rooms infor now the we must Burgundian turn from the evidence palaces of accounts and were elaborately decorated with relatively paintings informative - like inventories the to'Jason that of wills and the Chamber' at the Castle of Hesdin, occasional described starkly concise by inventories Caxton3 compiled - for use in tapestries were still the most favoured certain legal form transactions. of wall decora- tion, just as metalwork was the most The aristocratfavoured Marguerite form de of Lannoy, small Dame de Santes, scale ornament. The Burgundian collectionswhose will is dated of 1460, tapestries clearly owned and a small number of metalwork were probably unrivalled, religious paintings. but Evidentlythe Burgundian she did not think very highly accounts contain very few payments of them, forfor she picturesbequeathed them and mainly the to the wives of Burgundian inventories contain exceedingly members of her household; few mentionswhile her noble relativesof pictures.4 received manuscripts or jewellery.8 Almost nothing, how- Churches, convents, hospitals and episcopal palaces were ever, is known of the activities of the Netherlandish nobles obviously decorated with religious paintings and sometimes as patrons of painting. More can be ascertained of the tastes with portraits, of ecclesiastics or of the ruling princes. Some of high-ranking ecclesiastics such as the Canons of of these were commissioned by the church authorities,5 but Cathedral, whose wills and executors' accounts are pre- perhaps most were the gifts of individual clerics, of pious served together and several of whom owned pictures. One laymen or of confraternities.6 The civic authorities occasion- was the composer Guillaume Dufay, who died in 1474 and ally commissioned religious paintings and, more rarely, who owned a portrait of the King of France, a painting of an portraits, to decorate the chapels and assembly halls of civic unspecified subject, another of the Crucifixion and a fourth of buildings, and Last Judgements or Scenes of Justice for their the dance called the Moresca.9 Pierre van der Meulen, Dean court rooms. More commonly and more regularly, they em- of St Paul's at Liege, who died in 1459, bequeathed to the ployed painters to provide decorations for the great annual Treasury of his church: tabulam parvam in qua pulchre et processions which took place at , Malines, Louvain, magistraliter depicta est turris Babel, quam caram habeo.10 (This ncidentally, is a unique instance of a fifteenth-century Netherlander expressing his opinion of a picture). In 1486, partie, Preuves, 3 vols., [1849-52], I and II. For the period after 1477, the not Provost of Berclau, a village near Bethune, bequeathed covered by De Laborde, and for much supplementary information, see the to un- his church effigies suae gentis numerosae.11 wieldy LA.D.N.B., I, IV, VII and VIII. 3 J. MUNRO, ed.: The History of Jason, translated from the French of Raoul Le Fevre Moving down the social scale, we come to the prosperous by William Caxton, c.1477 (Early English Text Society, Extra Series, No.CXI), townspeople, many of whom appear to have owned pictures. London [19131, p.2. Cornelis Haveloes, an official of the Chambre des Comptes 4 See the inventory of I1420 and the drafts for an inventory which was never at Brussels, who died in 1505, owned ten religious paintings, completed, ofc.1458 and c.1467, published in DE LABORDE, op. cit., II, PP.235- 78 and 1-202; and the extracts from inventories of 1404, 1424 and 1477 including a of the Virgin and Child with Haveloes published by GACHARD: Rapport d Monsieur le Ministre de l'Intirieur sur les himselfdocu- as donor, which was to be placed beside his grave at ments concernant l'histoire de la Belgique qui existent dans les dipdts littiraires de Dijon Sainte-Gudule. He also had pictures of the Nine Heroes, et Paris, I, Archives de Dijon, Brussels [1843], pp.98-10o4 5 See, for example, the extracts from the accounts of the church of Our eenenLady ouden man ende eenjonc wyf, and two paintings on cloth of at published in the footnotes to P. ROMBOUTS and T. VAN LERIUS: amoureusheyden.12 Les Investigations of the wills of citizens of Liggeren at autres archives historiques de la gilde anversoise de Saint Luc, I, Antwerp Tournai13 and of the inventories of the effects of deceased and The Hague [I864-76], passim; the extracts from the accounts of various ecclesiastical institutions of Cambrai published in j. HOUDOY: Histoire artistique de la Cathidrale de Cambrai (M6moires de la Sociht6 des sciences, de l'agriculture et des arts de Lille, 4e s6r. VII), Lille [i88o]; the accounts of the H6pital Comtesse at Lille published in Inventaire analytique et chronologique des archives 7 See the extracts from the civic accounts of Bruges in L. GILLIODTS-VAN hospitalidres de la ville de Lille, I, Lille [1871]; E. VANDERSTRAETEN: 'Artistes SEVEREN: Inventaire des archives de la ville de Bruges, 7 vols., Bruges [i871-78], belges du XVe, XVIe et XVIIe siecles mentionn6s dans les archives de III-VI; from the accounts of the Franc of Bruges in w. H. J. WEALE: 'Le Palais l'H6pital Notre-Dame "a Audenarde', Annales de l'Acadimie d'archiologie de du Franc ' Bruges', Le Beffroi IV [1872-76], pp.46-92, 216-37; from the Ghent Belgique IX [1852], pp.368-9o; the extracts from the accounts of the Abbey of accounts in E. DE BUSSCHER: 'Recherches sur les anciens peintres gantois', Tongerlo in w. VAN SPILBEECK: De voormalige abdijkerk van Tongerloo en hare Messager des sciences historiques [1859], pp.ro5-271; from the Lille accounts in kunstschatten, Antwerp [1883]; and the extracts from the accounts of various j. HOUDOY: La Halle ichevinale de la ville de Lille 1235-z664, Lille and Paris Tournai churches published in A. DE LA GRANGE and L. CLOQUET: Etudes sur [1870]; from the Louvain accounts in VAN EVEN, passim; from the Malines l'art a Tournai et sur les anciens artistes de cette ville, 2 vols. (M6moires de la Socidt6 accounts in E. NEEFFS: 'La peinture et la sculpture a Malines', Messager des historique et litteraire de Tournai, XX, XXI), Tournai [1887-88], passim, and sciences historiques [1871], pp.345-65, 447-73; [1872], pp.12-47, 216-36, 268- E. SOIL: 'L'glise Saint-Brice A Tournai', Annales de la Socidtd historique et archio- 300; from the Tournai accounts in DE LA GRANGE and CLOQUET, op. Cit., passim; logiquede Tournai n.s. XIII [ 908], pp.73-638. and from the Ypres accounts in A. VANDENPEEREBOOM: rpriana, 7 vols., 6 See, for example, H. LORIQUET: 'Journal des travaux d'art executes dans Bruges [1878-83], I, II and V. l'abbaye de Saint-Vaast par l'abb6 Jean du Clercq (1429-1461)', Mimoires de 8 The will was published in B. DE LANNOY: Hugues de Lannoy, le bon Seigneur de la Commission dipartementale des monuments historiques du Pas-de-Calais I [1889-95], Santes, Brussels [1957], Pp.281-95. PP.57-92; the M6moriaux of Catherine de Saint-Genois, Abbess of Flines 9 Dufay's will was published in HOUDOY, op. cit. (note 5 above), pp.4o9-15. See (1436-82), published in E. HAUTCOEUR: Cartulaire de l'Abbaye de Flines, 2 vols., also the executors' accounts, p.268. Lille [18731, II, pp.9I1-23; the i537 inventory of the Carmelite Convent of 10 o.-J. THIMISTER: Essai historique sur l'dglise de Saint-Paul, Liege [1867], pp.273- Sion at Bruges, which gives the provenances of many of the pictures listed 77. (published by w. H. J. WEALE: 'Le couvent des soeurs de Notre-Dame dit de 11 CHANOINE VAN DRIVAL: JNcrologe de l'Abbaye de St-Vaast, Arras [1878], pp. Sion, A Bruges', Le Beffroi III [1866-70], pp.46-53, 76-93); and the 1451 68-70. statutes of the Confraternity of the Puy-Notre-Dame at Amiens, by which it 12 SCHAYES: 'Extrait des comptes et inventaire de la maison mortuaire de was ordained that every year the master of the Confraternity should present a Corneille Haveloes', B.C.R.H. II [1838], pp.50o-66. picture to Amiens Cathedral (published in A. BRUEIL: 'La confrdrie de Notre- 13 A. DE LA GRANGE: 'Choix de testaments tournaisiens anteirieurs au XVIe Dame du Puy, d'Amiens', Mimoires de la Socidtd des antiquaires de Picardie 2e ser. siecle', Annales de la Socidtd historique et archdologique de Tournai n.s. II [18971, III [18541, PP-489-662, p.61 I). PP-5-365- 189

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citizens of Douaix4 and Louvain"s painters show then that working it wasin the relativelyNetherlands.22 From the avail- usual to own a picture - pictures able documents, on cloth particularly being the slightlyfew surviving guild lists,23 more common than panel paintings, it appears that thewhich situation werewas no different more in the fifteenth expensive - and not unusual to century.own Amongseveral these paintings.large numbers of painters,An only a very inventory of the contents of thefew seem Inn to ofhave thebeen inWild permanent Man salaried at employment. Louvain, compiled in 1489, shows There that were theit containedcourt painters, atwho leastgenerally held the nineteen devotional paintings, including salaried post of two varletdechambre; triptychs.16 and there were the civic paint- The less prosperous, it is assumed, ers of Ypres, Malines,would Louvain, have Antwerp been and Brussels, whose content with woodcuts; but it is positionsknown appear that to have in entitled1520 thema 'poor only to token annual woman' of Bruges gave a water-colour emoluments.24 painting Other painters of the pursued Mass a secondary occupa- of Pope Gregory to the Convent of tion.Sion.17 The Louvain painter Aernout Raet was also a baker, It is quite impossible to judge the and importancein 1450 gave up painting of the altogether middle to devote himself to and lower classes as patrons of painting, his bakery.25 but Between it must1478 and not 1485 bethe Ghent painter overlooked and may have been very Lieven significant. van den Bossche wasEqually, employed the as concierge at the importance of the export market meeting must house not of thebe Confraternity under-rated, of St George, not only for there is good evidence that acting Netherlandish as doorkeeper but alsopictures catering forof and waiting at subjects sacred and profane were entertainments exported given in therequantities by members to of the Confra- parts of Italy.'8 The numbers ternity.26of Netherlandish Both Lieven and another religious Ghent painter, Willem paintings in Spain, and of carved de Ritsere, and seempainted to have ownedaltar-pieces taverns.27 At in Scandinavia and Central Europe in 1509, indicate Jehan Dubus thatwas both there fromegier was et paintre.28 Nicaise a thriving export to the south de Cambray, and aeast; painter while of , England organised entertainments and Scotland also provided enthusiastic for the Burgundian markets court: for jeux deNether- personnaiges and dances de landish works of art.19 The tapestries morisques ofat Brussels Arras, in 1440,29 and andlater certain of jeu, histoire et Tournai, Lille and Brussels, were of course in constant moralite' sur lefait de la dance macabre at Bruges in 1449.30 These demand all over Europe, and by the mid-sixteenth century were possibly exceptional cases. Most of the large numbers the value of tapestry exports is estimated as 4'5% of the total of painters then practising were probably dependant for value of Netherlandish exports.20 There was also a local their livings almost entirely on selling their work. They export trade to supply, as far as the Guilds permitted. In a could not live by teaching, for, though apprentices paid fees lawsuit of 1457, the illuminators of Bruges, accused by the to their masters, these were not particularly high, and the painters of importing detached miniatures, denied the masters usually had to feed and lodge the apprentices.31 charge and claimed that, on the contrary, they daily exported large quantities of miniatures done at Bruges to 22 L. GUICCIARDINI: Descrittione di tutti i Paesi Bassi, Antwerp [1567], p.97- Ghent, Ypres, Antwerp and elsewhere.21 23 Fifteenth-century guild lists survive for Antwerp from 1453 (ROMBOUTs and VAN LERIUS, Op. cit. (note 5 above), pp.i-55); for Bruges from 1453 (c. VANDEN 2. The Sources of Supply HAUTE: La Corporation des peintres de Bruges, Bruges [1I931, PP-3 if.; see also the guild obituary on pp.196 ff.); and for Tournai from 1423 (DE LA GRANGE and In 1567 the Italian commentator Lodovico Guicciardini CLOQUET, op. cit. (note 5 above), II, pp.70-72, 76-78, etc.). Investigation of the wrote with astonished admiration of the multitude of archives of other towns has allowed the compilation of long, but presumably incomplete, lists of painters working there: see, for Ghent, DE BUSSCHER, op. cit. (note 7 above), passim, and V. VAN DER HAEGHEN: Mimoire sur des documents faux 14 A. ASSELIN and c. DEHAISNES: 'L'art ' Douai dans la vie privee des relatifs bourgeois aux anciens peintres, sculpteurs et graveurs gantois (Memoires couronn6s et du XIIIe au XVIe siecle', Mimoires lus la Sorbonne dans les sdances extraordinaires autres memoires publies par I'A.R.B., collection in 80, LVIII, fasc. 9), Brussels du Comit6 imperial des travaux historiques et des Socidtis savantes [23rd-26th [1899], April pp.40-43, 46-47, 51-6i; for Lille, M. VANDALLE: 'L'6cole de peinture 1867], Archeologie, pp.219-33. lilloise des XIVe, XVe et XVIe siecles a-t-elle exist6?', Revue du Nord XVII 15 VAN EVEN [1867], pp.446-47, etc. 16 VAN EVEN [1867], p.446 note. [1931],Lille dans pp.283-30o, la premiere and J.-M.moiti6 SOYEZ du XVe and siecle', J. GARDELLES: Revue du 'L'activit6Nord LII [1970],artistique pp. a 17 WEALE, op. Cit. (note 6 above), p.82. 455-61; for Louvain, VAN EVEN, passim; for Malines, NEEFFS, op. cit. (note 7 18 On the collecting of works by Van Eyck in Italy, see R. WEIsS: above), 'Jan passim.van For Brussels, less complete lists may be compiled from A. Eyck and the Italians', Italian Studies XI [1956], pp.I-15; XII [19571, PINCHART: PP-7-2I. Archives des arts, sciences et lettres, Premiere s6rie, II, Ghent [18631], On the Medici collection of Netherlandish pictures, see E. K. J. pp.149-5I,REZNICEK: 155-56, E. FRANKIGNOULLE: 'Notes pour servir & l'histoire de l'art 'Enkele gegevens uit de vijftiende eeuw over de Vlaamse schilderkunst en Brabant', in Annales de la Socidtd royale d'archdologie de Bruxelles XXXIX [ 1935 Florence', in Miscellanea JozefDuverger, 2 vols., Ghent [1968], I, pp.83-91. pp.13-204, and c. MATHIEU: 'Le metier des peintres ' Bruxelles aux XIVe et 19 For Spain, see, for example, J. K. STEPPE: 'Vlaamse wandtapijten XVe in siecles',Spanje', in Bruxelles au XVme siecle, Brussels [1953], pp.219-35. Artes textiles III [1956], pp.27-66; idem, 'Vlaamse kunstwerken in het 24 bezit See, forvan example, the documents of 1400oo and 1401 concerning the civic Dofia Juana Enriquez', in Scrinium Lovaniense: Historische opstellen Etiennepainters ofvan Ypres, published by I. DIEGERICK: 'Jacques Cavael et France vander Cauwenbergh (Universit6 de Louvain, Recueil de travaux d'histoire Wichterne', et de A.S.E.B. 2e s&r. IX [1851-54] pp.283-87. philologie, 4e s6r. XXIV), Louvain [1961], pp.30I-30; F. J. SANCHEZ 25 CANTON:VAN EVEN [i866], p.28. Libros, tapices y cuadros que colecciond Isabel la Catolica, [1950]. 26 ForG. HULIN: Scan- 'Notice sur deux peintres gantois du XVe siecle: Li6vin van den dinavia, see J. ROOSVAL: 'Retables d'origine n6erlandaise dans les Bosschepays nor- et Willem van Lombeke alias de Ritsere', Bulletijn der M.G.O.G. XVI diques', R.B.A.H.A. III [19331, pp.136-58; idem, 'Les peintures des [I908], retables pp.52-64, P-53- n6erlandais en Subde', R.B.A.H.A. IV [1934], PP-.31-20. On the 27 export Ibid., PP.54, of 63-64. tapestries to England, see M.-R. THIELEMANS: Bourgogne et Angleterre, 28 DERelations LA FONS-MELICOCQ: 'Artistes requs bourgeois de Valenciennes', Revue politiques et dconomiques, 1435-1467 (Universit6 libre de Bruxelles, Travaux universelle de desla arts X [18591, PP.230-34, p.232. Facult6 de philosophie et lettres, XXX), Brussels [1966], pp.232-33. 2 I.A.D.N.B., On IV, p.I47- Scotland, see c. THOMPSON and L. CAMPBELL: and 30the Ibid., Trinity p.184; on Nicaise de Cambray, see A. PREUX: 'Anciens artistes Panels in Edinburgh, Edinburgh [1974], PP-53-54- douaisiens', Souvenirs de la Flandre wallonne II [1862], pp.23-33, Pp.25-27. 20 W. BRULEZ: 'The Balance of Trade in the Netherlands in the middle of the 31 See the contracts of apprenticeship involving Boudewijn van Lebbeke at Sixteenth Century', Acta historiae neerlandica IV [1970], pp.20-48, pp.-I, 43.Courtrai in 1383 (P. DEBRABANDERE, Geschiedenis van de schilderkunst te Kortrijk, 21 W. H. J. WEALE: 'Documents in6dits sur les enlumineurs de Bruges', CourtraiLe [19631, P-14) and Gheeraert Horenbault at Ghent in 1498 and 1502 Beffroi IV [1872-76], pp.238-337, P.249. (V. VAN DER HAEGHEN: 'Notes sur l'atelier de G6rard Horenbault', Bulletzjn der I90

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Profit came only when the master though sold varying under from town his to town, own pursued name the common work which might have been executed aims of maintaining mainly monopolies andby restricting appren- competition. tices. Naturally, not all these Only painters masters of the Guild lived might practise by the selling craft of painting pictures, as many must have spent in their ownmuch names. Toof become their a master, time it was on usually heraldic and decorative work. necessary to have or to purchase citizen's rights and to pay Very nearly all these painters were subject to the control a stiff due to the Guild. Masters' sons, however, paid less, of the Painters' Guilds.32 The court painters, like Pierre and newcomers to the town paid more. This was the most Coustain at Bruges,33 and painters employed by the court, effective way in which the Guilds controlled production. like at Ghent,34 could struggle to Generally, for example at Bruges, a master might run only exempt themselves from this control; and the very few one shop and exhibit pictures for sale in only one place;38 painters who belonged to patrician families and who did not while at it was permissible to pay a lower due to run live by their trade might also claim exemption.35 The vast a shop withoutfenestres ne monstres sur rue - that is, without the majority, however, had to submit to the Guilds and conform possibility of displaying pictures for sale.39 The import of pic- to their regulations, or else face prosecution. tures from outside the town was restricted by import duties, The guilds, while protecting the religious, moral and for example at Louvain,40 or even prohibited altogether, for social interests of all their members by endowing masses for example at Ghent.41 The painters vigorously defended their the dead, organising funerals, disciplining or expelling privileges against allied crafts, at Bruges restricting the licentious members and establishing funds for the care of the liberty of the illuminators to sell detached miniatures,42 and sick and poor, were formed mainly to protect the econ- at Brussels forbidding the tapestry weavers to draw or even omic interests of the prosperous master craftsmen.36 The to emend tapestry cartoons.43 Within the Guild itself, the Painters' Guilds were no exception, and their regulations,37 painters of Bruges could contrive to limit the spheres of competence of the cleederscrivers, the painters on cloth.44 A powerful guild with outside help might attempt to control M.G.O.G. XXII [1914], pp.26-30). Compare also, for Dijon, the contracts competitive production in a neighbouring town. In I441, involving Arnoul and Amiot Picornet in 14oo and Henri Bellechose in 142 1 and the Bruges painters obtained from Philip the Good an edict 1424 (GARNIER: 'Notes in6dites sur des artistes bourguignons', Bulletin arch/o- limiting the number of painters working at Sluys.45 Later in logique du Comiti des travaux historiques et scientifiques [1889], PP.-3o-I8, pp.317- 18), and the contracts involving the sculptor Liedenaert Jan Hermanssone the at century they undertook a protracted legal battle to have Bergen-op-Zoom in 1459 and 1460 (G. ASAERT: 'Documenten voor de ges- the edict observed.46 The Guilds further took measures to chiedenis van de beeldhouwkunst te Antwerpen in de XVe eeuw', Jaarboek vancontrol the supply of the raw materials of painting and to het Koninklijk Museum voor schone kunsten, Antwerpen [1972], PP. 43-86, pp. 59-60). keep down their prices. The Guild regulations were sanc- 32 Associations of painters, generally in combination with members of other tioned by the civic authorities, and those who infringed crafts, existed at Brussels by 13o6 (MATHIEU, Op. Cit. (note 23 above), pp.222-23), them were prosecuted in the civic courts. The rigour with at Ghent from the mid-fourteenth century (VAN DER HAEGHEN, op. cit. (note 23 above), PP-33-34), at Bruges by 1358 (D. VAN DE CASTEELE: 'Documents divers which these regulations were drawn up and enforced de la Soci6t6 S. Luc, a Bruges. Premiere partie, Keuren', A.S.E.B. 3e s6r. obviously I varied, and exemptions could always be granted. [1866], PP.5-54, P.5), at Tournai by 1364 (DE LA GRANGE and CLOQUET, op. cit. The Bruges Guild was possibly the most hysterical in insisting (note 5 above), II, pp.65-66), at Antwerp by or from 1382 (J. B. VAN DER STRAELEN, Jaerboek der vermaerde en kunstryke Gilde van Sint Lucas binnen de stad Ant- on its privileges, while the Antwerp Guild may have taken werpen, Antwerp [1855], pp.x-4), at Douai by 1431 (c. DEHAISNEs: La vie a etmore liberal line. l'oeuvre de Jean Bellegambe, Lille [1892], p.8), at Malines by 1439 (NEEFFS, op. cit. Some aspects of the aims and attitudes of the Guilds may (note 7 above) [1 871], P350), at Valenciennes by 1462 (c. DEHAINEs: Recherches sur le retable de Saint-Bertin, Lille [1892], pp.' 33-35), at Mons from or by 1487 be illustrated by an extract from a complaint addressed to (L. DEVILLERS 'Le pass6 artistique de la ville de Mons', Annales du Cercle archiologique de Mons XVI [i88o], pp.289-522, PP-404-19), and at Louvain by 1494 (VAN EVEN [1867], p.442). 38 See the records of the lawsuit brought by the Guild against Alaert Claeissins 33 Lawsuit of 1472: w. H. J. WEALE: 'Inventaire des chartes et documents in 1512, published in w. H. J. WEALE: 'Peintres brugeois: les Claeissins', appartenant aux archives de la Corporation de Saint Luc et Saint Eloi "A.S.E.B. LXI [1911], pp.26-76, pp.28-9. Bruges', Le Beffroi I [1863], pp.x 12-18, 145-52, 201-22, 290-95; II [1864-65], 39 Regulations of 1487: DEVILLERS, op. cit. (note 32 above), p.408. pp.241-63, pp.205-o6. 40 Regulations of 1494: VAN EVEN [1867], p.442. 34 Lawsuit of 1459: J. DUVERGER: 'Hofschilder Lieven van Lathem (ca.I430- 41 See the record of the lawsuit brought by the Guild against Joos Sammelins 1493)', Jaarboek van het Koninklijk Museum voor schone kunsten, Antwerpen [1969], in 1514, printed in v. VAN DER HAEGHEN: 'La Corporation des peintres de PP-97-1o4, PP.97-8 note. Gand, Matricule, comptes et documents (16e-I8e sidcles)', Handelingen der 3, See the case of the Louvain painter Jan van den Berghe in 1529: VAN EVEN M.G.O.G. VI [19o5-o6], pp.164-78. [1867], pp.483-85. 42 Lawsuits of 1426, 1447 and 1457: WEALE, op. cit. (note 21 above), pp.239-52. 36 On guild organization, see J. HEERS: Le travail au Moyen-Age, 2nd ed. (QueAt Antwerp and Ghent, the painters successfully asserted their control over the sais-je?, No.ix86), Paris [1968], pp.85-1o3; S. L. THRUPP: 'The Gilds', illuminators in (Ghent lawsuits of 1463 in DE BUSSCHER, op. cit. (note 7 above), Cambridge Economic History of Europe, III, Cambridge [1971], pp.230-80. pp.207-xo; Antwerp lawsuit of 1462 in VAN DER STRAELEN, op. cit. (note 32 31 The Antwerp regulations of 1382, 1434, 1442, 1470, 1472 and 1494 were above), pp. I -I12). published by VAN DER STRAELEN, Op. cit. (note 32 above), pp. -35; the Bruges 43 Document of 1476, printed in A. WAUTERS: Les tapisseries bruxelloises, Brussels regulations of 1444, 1479 and 1497 by VAN DE CASTEELE, op. cit. (note 32 above), [1878], pp.48-49. pp. 17 ff; the Louvain regulations of 1494 by VAN EVEN [1867], PP-443-45; the 44 Legal decisions of 1458, 1462 and 1463 in VAN DE CASTEELE, Op. cit. (note 32 Mons regulations of 1487 by DEVILLERS, op. cit. (note 32 above), pp.4o4-19; above), pp.28--30, 30-32, 32-33. At Brussels in 1454 and 1455 and at Antwerp and the Tournai regulations of 1480 by A. GOOVAERTS: 'Les ordonnances in 1478, agreements were reached between the painters and sculptors on their donn6es en 1480, 'a Tournai, aux m6tiers des peintres et des verriers', B.C.R.H. respective parts in the making of altar-pieces (MATHIEU, op. cit. (note 23 above), 5e s'r. VI [1896], pp.97-I82, pp.I47-82. The Tournai regulations of 1423/24 p.224; VAN DER STRAELEN, Op. cit. (note 32 above), p.24). The Malines painters were destroyed before they could be published, but are said to have been very tried unsuccessfully in 1439 and 1480 to assert their control over the glass similar to those of 1480 (P. ROLLAND: 'Les imp6ratifs historiques de la bio- painters (NEEFFs, op. cit. (note 7 above), 1871, PP-350, 354). graphie de Roger', R.B.A.H.A. XVIII [1949], pp.145-61, p.152). The Brussels 4 L. GILLIODTS-VAN SEVEREN: Inventaire des archives de la ville de Bruges, V, regulations of 1387, the revisions of I416, 1453 and 1465, and the new regula- Bruges [1876], p.248. tions of 1474, have not been published, but have been usefully discussed by"6 Document of 1485 in WEALE, op. cit. (note 33 above), pp.214-2o; see also MATHIEU, op. cit. (note 23 above), passim. the document of 1487 summarised on p.22 .

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the civic authorities of Tournai look beyondin 1480 their own by towns, the and Tournaiorganized annual con- Guild of St Luke: gresses to be held in different cities where painters from all over the Netherlands would assemble to honour St Luke and . . pluiseurs gens, tant de dehors comme de dedens ladicte ville, sentans to: qu'il n'y avoit ordonnances et status pour les reprendre, ains qu'il y avoit en autres mestiers, se mesloient journelement de faire et vendre en ladicte entretenir paix, amour et ferme fraternite entre nous qui usons de l'art et ville ouvraiges desdicts mestiers de painture et de voirie, qui estoientfaulx, mestier de painture et attendences d'icelle.51 frauduleux et mauvais, au pre'iudice de la chose publique, ains que pluiseurs fois avoit estd trouve par noz priddcesseurs; et que les maistres et ouvriers They assembled at Ghent in I468, at Ypres in I470 and at desdicts mestiers ou aucuns d'eulx, qui sont bons ouvriers aians leurs Lille in 1472.52 Almost nothing is known of these con- femmes et mesnaiges en ladicte ville, et contribuans aux charges d'icelle, gresses, but presumably they helped to allay the dread of estoient et sont huiseux (= oisifs), et ne trouvoient que gaignier, et par tant lesdicts paintres et voiriers en leursdicts mestiers estoient grandement outside competition and to encourage a freer exchange of commissions - and of ideas. pre'iudicie's, en tant que parcidevant et jusques a' prdsent, avoit et a este' souffert aporter, vendre en cestedicte ville, ouvraiges de leursdicts mestiers fais en autres villes, ce que on ne leur soufferoit faire ailleurs, si non3. The en Sale of Works of Art franches festes seullement; et a ceste cause lesdicts mestiers estoient fortWhen a work of art was commissioned, a contract seems interesse's et adommagies, tellement que ceulx desdicts mestiers generally ne se to have been drawn up which was often registered pooient et ne peuent bonnement entretenir ne continuer ledit service indivin, the civic courts.53 A contract might contain a detailed ne acomplir les affaires d'iceulx mestiers, lesquelz a present estoient description fort of the work to be executed, like the contract for diminuez etjournelement se diminuoient en prouffit et en bons ouvriers, a sculpteddont altar-piece of the Life of Christ commissioned in les aultres villes se augmentoient, tant en prouffit que en bons ouvriers . . . 1448 by the Abbess of Flines from the Valenciennes sculptor disoient finablement que leursdicts mestiers estoient encores plus prdiuicie' Ricquart. One of the scenes to be represented was a Nativity, par ce que les drois que on paioit ausdicts mestiers estoient trop petis, en which is mentioned as follows: regart aux drois qui isdis mestiers sont, is villes de Paris, Gand, Bruges, Brouxelles et autres villes voisines, pour estre francq maistre de l'un desdicts mestiers, ou l'on paye dix ou douze livres de gros, et une Item,tasse et par desoubz ledict crucefix, au milieu de ladicte table, y aura la fourme de la Gesine Nostre-Dame qui sera ouvre'e par la manidre qui d'argent, et plus .. .41 s'ensyeut: c'est assavoir la maniere et forme de la grange et idifice en laquelle Nostre-Seigneur Jhesus nasqui bien et proprement faicte, et en As a result of this complaint, the Guild achieved its purpose - icelle grange faire la maniere d'une belle et riche couche entretaillie au which seems to have been simply to raise its dues.48 quavech ( chevet), et celler deseure d'un chiel en maniere d'un renvers Such a situation might be expected to have had a para- venantjusques aux piez du lit, bien etfacticement entretaillie, ainsi quant lysing effect on attempts to traffic in pictures, and to par have telle maniere que a prdsent onfait les couches des seigneurs et bourgois; kept painters confined to their native towns (and local tradi- et c~ celle couche, au lez par devant, et au bas des piez, faire en manidre de tions). This was not altogether the case, mainly because gourdinesthe (= rideaux), lesquelles ouvreront certains angelos qui pour ce Guild privileges were suspended during the great annual faire y seront fourmez, et icelles gourdines aourne'es de gouttieres et Fairs at Antwerp, Ghent and elsewhere - which therefore provided free markets in works of art as in other s'com- From a letter of 1468 from the Ghent to the Tournai Guild, published by modities - and because certain painters were prosperous A. PINCHART: 'Un congres de peintres en 1468', Bulletins de I'A.R.B. 3e s6r. I enough to move about and to become masters of several [i88x], pp.360-69, p.363. S2 Ibid., pp.363-65. Guilds at the same time. The Ghent painter Saladin 3 Besides de those mentioned in the text and in note 61 below, see the contracts Stoevere worked at Ghent, Oudenaarde and Bruges. or registrations of contracts ofJan de Stoevere for the decoration of a chapel Eventually settling at Oudenaarde, he also worked for the at the Sint Salvatorskerk of Ghent in 1425; of Saladin de Stoevere for the polychroming and painting of an altar-piece for the Friars Minor of Ghent in court at Lille and Bruges.49 The Lille painter Huson de le 1434; of Boudin van Witevelde for an altar-piece for Sint-Denijs-Boekel near Mote became master at Bruges in 149o and master at Oudenaarde in 1443 and for two altar-pieces for the Fullers of Ghent in 1451; Tournai in 1491, but continued to undertake commissions of Nabur Martins for an altar-piece for St Walburga at Oudenaarde in 1443 and for an altar-piece for Lede, near Ghent, in 1444; of Maerc van Ghistel for at Lille.5so These are only two of many instances of painters an altar-piece for St Martin at Courtrai in 1445; of Cleerbout van Witevelde working for patrons in several different towns. By 1468, even for the wings of a triptych for Asper, near Ghent, in 1460; of Daniel de Riike the Guilds had come to acknowledge that painters should for a picture for Odwijn de Ville in 1468 and for an altar-piece for the August- inian convent at Ghent in 1469 (all published in DE BUSSCHER, op. cit. (note 7 above), pp.244-45, 128-30, 167-68, 169, 171, 173, 267-68, 251-53, 216, 217); '7 GOOVAERTS, op. cit. (note 37 above), pp.148-49. of Jan van Molenbeek for the polychroming and painting of an altar-piece for 48 ROLLAND, op. cit. (note 37 above), p.152. the Abbey of Val-Duc in 1433 (VAN EVEN [1866], p.35); of the sculptor Bertel- 49 Saladin de Stoevere was active at Ghent in 1434 (DE BUSSCHER, op. cit. (note meeus van Raephorst for an image of the Magdalen in a case with painted 7 above), pp.128-30), at Oudenaarde in 1436/37 (DE LABORDE, op. cit. (note wings, 2 for the Infirmary in the Klapdorp at Antwerp in 1471; of Jan de above), II, p.396), became a citizen of Bruges in 1445 (R. A. PARMENTIER: Ledege for the polychroming of an altar-piece for Wakkerzeel in 1477 (both in Indices op de Brugsche Poorterboeken, 2 vols., Bruges [1938], I, pp.4o8-o09), and was ASAERT, op. cit. (note 31 above), pp.55-56, 56-57); and ofNicaise Barat for the back in Oudenaarde in 1452/53 and 1467/68 (DE LABORDE, op. cit., II, P.396). He polychroming and painting of an altar-piece for the Church of St Peter at worked for the court at Lille in 1454 and at Bruges in 1468 (Ibid., I, p.424; AntoingII, in 1447 (A. LOUANT: 'Un retable en polychromie et plate peinture de Nicaise Barat', R.B.A.H.A. IX [I1939], pp.'iI-19, p.19). A Louvain lawsuit of PP-364, 365). 50 Huson de le Mote, born at Lille, became a burgess of Bruges in 1490 1484 involving the painter Pieter van Daelhem concerns a contract to paint for (PARMENTIER, op. cit., II, pp.796-97), master of the Bruges Guild in the same the Church of Binkom a Tafele van vyf beelden, nae de Tafele van Ste Machiels, te year (VANDEN HAUTE, op. cit. (note 23 above), p.43), and master of the Tournai Loven (VAN EVEN [1867], p.456). The only contract for a surviving picture Guild in 1491 (DE LA GRANGE and CLOQUET, op. cit. (note 5 above), II, p.72). seems to be that of 1464 for Dirk Bouts's polyptych of the Sacraments, painted Conceivably, he was the 'Huyssoen van Brugge' who became master at for the Confraternity of the Holy Sacrament at Louvain (published by E. VAN Antwerp in 1492 (ROMBOUTS and VAN LERIUS, OF. Cit. (note 5 above), p.44). In EVEN: 'Le contrat pour l'ex6cution du triptyque de Thierry Bouts, de la 1504/05 and I 508/o09 he was paid for pictures for the H6pital Comtesse at Lille collegiale Saint-Pierre, i, Louvain (1464)', Bulletins de I'A.R.B. 3e ser. XXXV (Inventaire ... (cited in note 5 above), pp.422, 423). [I898], pp.469--79).

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This content downloaded from 35.176.47.6 on Sat, 05 Jan 2019 07:22:28 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms THE ART MARKET IN THE SOUTHERN NETHERLANDS IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY ordine'es de fringes bien et richement; et au pan decestedicte la gourdine, ville du(de coste' Tournai), une table d'autel contenant la grandeur de senestre, lequel sera entre-ouvert par le milieu, serontfaictes l'autel de ladictelesfourmes e'glise, et et pour asseir et servir a' icellui autel, avec deux manidres du buef et de l'asne que par l'ouverture coulombesde celle gourdine et deux anges,seront laquelle table doitestre et telle semblable etnon moins, veuz, et par le coste' du quavech de ladicte couche, autant lez dedextre, taille, parde doruredevant, et estoffure comme de pourtraiture, autrement que sera fourme' la manidre d'une quaydre appoyoire celle (= appartenantchaise d'appui), aux decanonniers de ladicte ville estant en l'eglise Saincte- tellefafon que on lesfait en Brabant et en Flandres Caterine et en plusieurs d'icelle ville,aultres excepte' que es huisseries per-dedens seront faictes lieux, c'est assavoir hault derriere et entretaille'e, deuxet sur ystoires chascun debout la ungpassion de Yostre-Seigneur, et pardehors quattre angelot; et en celle quayore sera assis l'image de Joseph, ymaiges lequel telz en que appoyant lesdis paroisciens vouldront, ou lieu de l'Ystore sainct sur sa crochette fera manidre de chauffer ung drappelet Antonne a' qui une est fouyore en ladicte table des canonniers; a' livrer ladicte table, (brasier) qui sera fourmee devant luy, et sur icellefouyere coulombes araet angesla maniore tout parfait et acheve' en cestedicte citd en-dedens le jour d'une caudidre sdant sur ung andyer, et sera icelle de caudidrePentecouste en prouchainmanidre venant, pour et moyennant le pris et somme de vm" qu'elle soit plaine d'yauee (d'eau), laquelle eauee livres sera depour gros, faire que unglesdis cure' et paroisciens en donnent et ont paid audit baing en une cuvelette qui sera ordonne' assez pros Phelippe, d'icelle caudiere et dont au desjd lez ilz luy ont baillie' et ddlivrd la somme de iij vers les piez du lit dessusdict; lequel baing deux angelos libvres ordonneront, de gros, dont dont il se tient content, et le surplus se doit payer est l'un des angelos fera manidre de aler querre (chercher) assavoira: deuxla livraison queuves de ladicte table, ij livres de gros, et dedens ung an d'eauee en la caudidre dessusdicte, et l'aultre fera prouchainmanidre de apris, ordonner les ij aultresle livres de gros; et a" tout ledit marchid furnir baing en ladicte cuvelette. Item, au milieu de la couche et a'dessusdicte, emplir par sur la lemanidre lit dicte ledit Phelippe s'est obligie en corps et qui bien et richement serafourmez, aournez d'oreilliers biens, et etc.,couvertures sur v solz bien tournois de peine.58 et proprement ouvre, sera assise l'imaige de Nostre-Dame, laquelle tiendra son enfant tout droit devant luy, lequel enfantfera Inmanidre 1476 dethe aler church querre authorities complained that Truffin had 'offrande des trois roix qu'ilz seront prest et ordonne broken pour hisoffrir contract, comme because his work was not so good as the cy-apres sera dict; icelluy enfant tout nudz, et ladicteymaige contract affulee had specified. sur se This difference was submitted to the chemise d'un mantel fourrez d'ermines.54 arbitration of four assessors, two chosen by each side. Unfortunately no record has survived of their decision.59 Alternatively, a contract might state that Lawsuits the work over to thebe breaking of contracts generally started executed was to be similar to an existing becausework. In the 1444, artist the failed to keep to his deadline; but disputes Ghent painter Nabur Martins contracted could to executealso arise for over a the quality of the work - as in the burgess of Ghent a Last Judgement 'comparable instance in of its Truffin's execu- altar-piece, over payments, or over the tion and in its figures to the picture of the Judgementextent of thehanging artist's own participation in the execution of the in the hall of the Bakers' Guild' (noch so goed work. van Oneweercke of theende most interesting of these lawsuits was pourtraituren dan tavereel es vanden Jugemente brought hanghende before inde the Bruges magistrates in 152o by the Guild backershuus, in de camere).55 Sometimes, however, of Fullers not even and the Shearers against the painter Aelbrecht subject was mentioned when the contract Cornelis. was registered. According to the record of the court, the defendant There was invariably a deadline, an agreement had undertaken on the price and promised, on 19th November 1517, to and the means of its payment, and apaint statement within twoof theyears a triptych for the altar of the Guild at penalties to be incurred by the artist if he S. broke Jacob the representing terms of the nine choirs of angels, according to the contract. The penalties, usually fines, a text were translated sometimes from Latin into Flemish. The price agreed extremely severe. Occasionally the artist was 30 was livres asked de gros,to with the express stipulation that the guarantee the permanence of the work to defendant be executed.56 himself, He with his own hand, should execute well might, nevertheless, complain of underpayment. and with artistry The all the nudes and principal parts of the painter Jehan Beugier in 1483 addressed picture. a petition Besides to the facts that the defendant had received 2 magistrates of Amiens: livres towards payment, and that he had failed to deliver the picture within the time specified, he had - which was still par laquelle il disoit que, puis nagaires, par marchidefait, worse - subcontracted il avoitfait the work et to another for the sum of 8 paint aucunsymages en l'eglise et hostel de St-Ladre appartenans a ladicte livres.60 ville, en quoyfaisant, en consideration au pris qu'il en avoit marchandd, il avoit eu grant perte et domage. Subcontracting seems to have been quite usual practice and was often foreseen in the original contract. At Bruges The magistrates authorized a supplementary and Ghent payment.57 it was not exceptional to find two painters jointly The following contract was drawn up in contracting 1474 between to execute one picture."6the At Lille in 1510o, Pierre Tournai painter Philippe Truffin and the church authorities of Warchin, a village near Tournai: 58 A. PINCHART: 'Archives des arts, des sciences et des lettres ?94', Messager des Phelippe Truffn, paintre, a confesse' avoir marchandd sciences historiqueset emprins [1868], pp.308-55, de faire pp.315-I6. 59 Ibid., pp.315-i6. aux curd et paroisciens de l'e'glise et paroisce de Warchin, sur le povoir de 60 W. H. J. WEALE:'Albert Cornelis, Hi6rarchie des anges', Le Beffroi I [18631], pp.I-22, pp.18-i9. See also the somewhat similar case of 1470 involving Cornelis Bollaert, mentioned in J.-P. sossoN: 'Une approche des structures 54 The contract was published by A. PINCHART, Archives des arts, sciences et lettres, 6conomiques d'un m6tier d'art: La Corporation des peintres et selliers de Premiere s6rie, I, Ghent [i86o], pp.43-47, and also by HAUTCOEUR, Op. Cit. Bruges', Revue des archeologues et historiens d'art de Louvain III [1970], pp.91-1oo, (note 6 above), II, pp.915-20. p.92. 55 DE BUSSCHER, op. cit. (note 7 above), p.174 note. 61 See the contracts of Willem van Axpoele and Jan Martins for a series of 65 Thus in 1456 the Ghent painter Cleerbout van Witevelde, contracting to Counts of in the Schepenhuis at Ghent (1419); of Jan van Couden- retouch an altar-piece for the Church of Wachtebeke, guaranteed his work for berghe and Maerc van Ghistel for an altar-piece for Ruiselede (1430); of 2o years (DE BUSSCHER, Op. cit., pp. I78-79). Boudin van Witevelde and Jan de Stoevere for an altar-piece for the Abbey of "? G. DURAND: Inventaire sommaire des archives communales . . Ville d'Amiens, IV, Nieuwenbossche at Ghent (1443); and of Lieven van den Bossche and Gheerolf sirie CC, Amiens [igo9], p.240. van der Moortele for an altar-piece for Evergem (1461) (all in DE BUSSCHER

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du Hem contracted to polychrome the gens partsdes comptes, of the an lettering altar-piece of inscriptions, which had for the H6pital Comtesse, and agreed been specially that composed the painted by the chronicler parts Chastellain, and should be executed by Jehan de other Gand: decorative work. The document closes:

ou d'ung aultre, moiennant que ladicte pourpaincture tous lesquelz ouvrages,ne soit dessusdis mendre fais et assouffis que de par leditle suppliant main dudit Jehan de Gand.62 le mieulx qu'il a peu faire, icelui suppliant requiert a vous mesdits seigneurs, a lui estre ordonni et tauxd la somme de VIII livres de gros et At Namur, the painter Christophe lui semble de leHongrie, avoir bien gaignie' ethaving diservi, et ndantmoins con- il se submet et tracted to paint an altar-piece for raporte the ac votre church bonne discrition of et ordonnance.68 Saint-Jean- Baptiste, renegotiated his contract in 1540, insisted on a higher price and blithely promised Probably only to a smallhave proportion the of wings pictures were com- painted by missioned.in Brussels. Most, perhaps, No were painter, chosen by the hepatron from claimed, was pair les poindre semblablement the artist's or a dealer's - but stock. he In thefailed more highlyto evolved mention whether Van Orley had tapestryagreed industry, to this outletstransaction, seem to have been almost or indeed whether he knew Van monopolised Orley.63 by merchants There who putis upalso the capital, the acquired interesting instance of the tapestries a stock of tapestries Gideon, and cartoons, commissioned and kept the weavers in by Philip the Good in 1448 from their twoemploy. weaversClients probably of chose Tournai. tapestries from the mer- Their contact stated that they: chants' stocks, or selected cartoons from stock which were then sent to be woven.69 Philip the Good's Gideon tapestries, sont tenus ... de faire faire par Bauduin which de he Bailleul ordered direct ou from par the autre weavers meilleurand for which paintre qu'ilz pourront finer, tous les patrons cartoons deswere histores specially made, et devises must have qui been sur an exceptional ce leur ont estiepourparlez et devisies de case.70par mondit The method seigneur.64 of payment for these tapestries was un- usually complex, with advances and instalments paid at The execution of a commission three-monthlywas sometimes intervals; supervisedbecause, as the documents state, by the patron. When in 1425 the the Ghent weavers were magistrates not well off, point visited puissans ne fondez.2x 's studio,65 when Bauduin in 1432de Bailleul, the the painterburgomasters of the cartoons, had to come and some of the magistrates of Bruges from Arras visited to Bruges andJan make van a long Eyck's stay there to show his studio,66 and when in 1433 Philip designs the to Goodthe Duke.72 visited After the tapestriesJan van had been delivered, Eyck's studio in his palace,67 they the Dukewere took presumably the unusual step of buyinginspect- the cartoons from ing the progress of works which thethey weavers.73 had Thiscommissioned. was perhaps equivalent to buying the It seems highly improbable that copyright. a contract was drawn up and registered every time a commission Though painting was was a less placed. highly organized Private craft, which arrangements were assuredly made, required much and less outlay in of suchcapital, painters instances presumably the artist would sometimes have had to send in an invoice worked on the same principles as the tapestry merchants but when the work was completed. acted as their own retailers. The care with which the guild In 1465 the Lille painter Jehan Pillot had finished several regulations defined the right to exhibit work for sale indicates paintings for the central Burgundian accounting office, thatthe this was an important privilege, and that painters relied Chambre des Comptes at Lille. His invoice begins as follows: on their shop windows to attract clients more than on the spread of their reputations. Clients might buy from the supplie humblement vostre obdissant serviteur Jehan Pillot, paintre, stock in the shop;74 or, like the buyers of tapestries, they comme il soit ainsi que par l'ordonnance et commandement de vous mes dits might presumably choose from a stock of patterns, one of seigneurs, ledit suppliant ait nagairesfait et assouffy pluiseurs ouvrages de which would be repeated for them.75 That painters kept son dit mestier au porge devant de la Chambre des dits comptes, desquels la ddclaration s'ensuict: Et premiers, ung tableau auquel est la mort adjournant ung chascun pour 15 I.A.D.N.B., I, i, p. 116. venir rendre compte des biens que Dieu donne a ung chascun; 69 In 1396, Louis of Orleans went to Arras to choose tapestries (DE LABORDE, item, ung autre tableau ouquel est Nostre Seigneur tenant son jugement, op. cit. (note 2 above), III, p.128). For an interesting case of the re-use of the accompaignd des XII apostles et ung chascun rdsuscitans pour rendre same son cartoon on three occasions, see the exhibition catalogue Chefs-d'oeuvre de la compte devant le grant tribunal... tapisserie du XIVe au XVIe sidcle, Grand Palais, Paris [1973], pp.87-9I. 70 A. PINCHART: Histoire de la tapisserie dans les Flandres (j. GUIFFREY, E. MUNTZ and A. PINCHART: Histoire gendrale de la tapisserie, Troisi me partie), Paris [1878-851], The next items concern alterations made at the request PP.74-75; of P. SAINTENOY: Les arts et les artistes a la cour de Bruxelles (A.R.B., Classe des beaux-arts, Memoires, collection in 40, 2e s6r. V, fasc. I), Brussels [19341, PP-53-56. op. cit. (note 7 above), pp.145-46, 254-55, 168-69, 195). At Bruges in 1455, 71 SAINTENOY, op. cit., p.55. Arnoud van Nockenbrouck and Jan de Muenic contracted jointly to paint an 72 DE LABORDE, op. cit. (note 2 above), I, p.394. altar-piece for the church of Westcapelle (sossoN, op. cit., p.92); and Christian 73 Ibid., I, p.437. van den Brande and Jan Raes were paid in 1463 for the joint execution of a 74 Thus in 1444 the Ghent painter Claes van der Meersch sold an expensive picture in the Chapel of the Palace of the Franc (w. H. J. WEALE: 'Le Palais du altar-piece for the Church of Temse (DE BUSSCHER, op. cit. (note 7 above), p. 158); and altar-pieces were sold at Antwerp by Katlijne van der Stockt for the Franc a Bruges', Le Beffroi IV [1872-76], pp.46-92, P.77). 62 Inventaire analytique ... (cited in note 5 above), p.423. Church of Rumst in 1436, by Denijs de Roede for the Church of Millegem 63 F. COURTOY: 'Quelques m6tiers d'art A Namur du XVe au XVIIIe si cle', (1436/39), by Aerd Tsheraerts for the Church of Zandhoven (146o) and for the Church of Heinkenszand (1464), etc. (ASAERT, op. cit. (note 31 above), pp.47, Annales de la Socilti archiologique de Namur XXXVIII [1927], pp.289-329, p.323. 4 I.A.D.N.B., IV, p.192. 47-48, 49, 52, etc.). 5 W. H. J. WEALE: Hubert and John van Eyck, London [ 1908], p.xxix. 76 This is suggested by the existence of large numbers of replicas of certain 66 Ibid., p.xxxviii. compositions (see, for example, the instructively long lists in D. DE vos: 'De 67 Ibid., p.xxxix. Madonna-en-Kindtypologie bij ', Jahrbuch der Berliner

I94

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stocks of both paintings and patterns is demonstrated Painters by occasionally the bartered their work. In 1489 the will of the Brussels painter Vrancke van der Louvain Stockt, paintermade in Roelof van Velpen was paying half his rent 1489.76 He bequeathed to his sons Machiel in anddeliveries Bernaert, of pictures.88 At Bruges in the early 1530's the both of whom were also painters, all his unfinished painter Ambrosiuspictures Benson bought a house and garden from (alle begost werck dat niet bynae volmaect en es, het a sySpanish groote merchant.tafelen The price was 31 livres de gros, of which oft cleyn tafelen ocht tavereelkens) as well as Benson his patterns paid 15and livres in cash. The remaining I6 livres he drawings (alle bewerpen . . . het sy patroonen promisedoft anders to dat pay op in pictures - eight pictures worth 2 livres pappier gemaect es). His finished pictures, each. however, When he they be- were delivered, the Spaniard claimed that queathed to his wife, who was evidently theyintended were toworth sell only I livre 8 sols each, but the Painters' them.7 Vrancke himself had inherited in Guild, I444 fromcalled hisin to arbitrate, determined that they were father, the painter Jan van der Stockt, octodecim indeed instrumenta, worth the full 2 livres each.89 dicta tavereele, tam magna quam perva - which presumably It seems thatrepre- an artist might on occasion exhibit his work sented Jan's stock of pictures. 78 Like , in a public building in the hope of making a sale. In i464 Dirk Bouts in 1475 bequeathed to his sons: one Willem Goesteline, born at Brussels, then living at Geraardsbergen, exhibited for sale at the Church of St omnes tabulas et ymagines nondum perfectas neque Nicholascompletas. Perfectasin Ghent a sculpted altar-piece of the Nativity vero vel quasi perfectas legavit prefate Elisabeth, uxori which sue.79 was bought by one Jan Ganshoorre.90 No other fifteenth-century instance of the practice seems to be known; Like members of other crafts, painters tended and itto iscongre- not clear whether the seller Goesteline was the gate in the same streets and quarters of a town, sculptor, and byor merelythis the owner, of the altar-piece. means must have attracted more business than Artists neighbouring might further employ agents to secure commissions competition drove away. At Brussels, most painters or sales. had Their their wives, who are sometimes cited in their premises on the Steinwech,80 while at Louvain husbands' many were contracts to and who occasionally took over the be found along the Hoelstraet.8 1 A chronicle relates that at running of the business when their husbands died,91 may Antwerp in 146o premises known as Onser Lieveroften haveVrouwen acted as agents. In 1436 the wife of the Brussels Pand were erected near the Church of Our Lady:painter Jan van der Stockt negotiated the sale of an altar-

voer Boecken, schilderien, Beeldesnyers ende scrynwerck piece te coope at te Antwerp.92 sitten.82 Jan's daughter Catherine in i441 became a burgess of Bruges in order to set up as a painter there,93 and may have obtained commissions for her father The Antwerp and Brussels Painters' Guilds also rented from at Bruges. the Dominican convent at Antwerp premises where their members could set up stalls,83 but, after disputes A less orthodox with themeans of selling works of art was by lottery. In the second half of the fifteenth century, lotteries convent in 1479 and I480,s4 the two Guilds sold their rights came to be an increasingly popular form of fund raising, and to these premises in 148I to the Antwerp Confraternity of St the prizes frequently included pieces of silversmiths' work.94 Nicholas.85 Meanwhile they concluded an agreement with the Church of Our Lady by which their membersNo fifteenth-century became case of pictures being given as prizes entitled to rent, at fixed rates, stalls in Onser seems Liever to be known, Vrouwen but the great picture lottery held at Pand.86 In I484, they obtained from the Antwerp Malines in 1560 adminis- by the painter Claude Dorizi was certainly not without precedent. The printed advertisement for this tration a decree prohibiting the sale of paintings and images lottery informs us that tickets, price 3 patards, were on sale during the Antwerp Fairs anywhere but in the Pand.s7 from Ist April 1559 until 29th July 1560. The draw was on 30thJuly 156o, and le hault et superieur Pris was billed as: Museen XIII [1971], pp.6o-161), and particularly by the interesting case of two virtually identical panels of the Virgin and Child at Brussels and in the une sumptueuse, grande et artificiele piece de paincture a huyle, contenant Busch-Reisinger Museum, Cambridge, Mass. The first bears the arms of the l'histoire de Susanne, enrichie d'une triumphante bordure dorke de fin or, Bruges apothecary Martin Reyngout; while the second has in the same position environ de six piedz de hault, et huict et demy de large, ensemble estimez the coat of arms of the Van der Burch family of Fumes (see c. VAN DEN BERGEN- a 220 florins.95 PANTENS: 'L'h6raldique au service de l'6tude d'un tableau des Mus6es royaux', Bulletin des Musees royaux des beaux-arts [ 1966], pp.243-46). 76 P. J. GOETSCHALCKX: 'Vier ongekende schilders der XVe eeuw', Bijdragen tot de geschiedenis bijzonderlik van het aloude Hertogdom Brabant II [1903], PP.239-53, 88 VAN EVEN [1867], p.460. PP.245-49. 89 R. A. PARMENTIER: 'Beschieden omtrent Brugsche schilders van de 16e 77 Ibid., p.247. eeuw, I. ', A.S.E.B. LXXX [1937], pp.89-129, PP-97-98. 78 Ibid., p.240. 00 C.-L. DIERICX: Memoires sur la ville de Gand, 2 vols., Ghent [1814-151, II, 7 VAN EVEN [1869], P-333. p. x Io note 3. 80 MATHIEU, op. Cit. (note 23 above), p.23r. x1 In a Tournai lawsuit of i508 involving the painter Jean Le Bacre and con- 81 VAN EVEN, passim. cerning an altar-piece for the Chapel of St Martin at Saint-Amand, Jean 82 w. VAN HEYST: Het boek der tyden in 't korte, ed. I. LE LONG, appeared [1753], with his wife auctorise'e en ceste partie de sondit mary (DE LA GRANGE and p.208. CLOQUET, Op. Cit. (note 5 above), II, pp.246-47). A wedewe Snellaerts was traffick- 83 D. SCHLUGLEIT: 'De Predikheerenpand en St-Niklaasgilde te Antwerpen ing in pictures at Antwerp in 1480 (VAN DEN BRANDEN, op. cit. (note 84 above), ( 1445-553)', Bijdragen tot de geschiedenis (gesticht door wijlen P.J. Goetschalckx) p.175: on the Antwerp painters named Snellaert, see G. HULIN DE LOO: XXIX [19381, PP-99-119, pp.100oo-o. 'Snellaert (Jan)', in B.N.B. XXIII, Brussels [1921-24], cols. 20-24). 84 F. j. VAN DEN BRANDEN: 'Het "Register vanden dachvaerden" (vervolg)', 92 ASAERT, op. Cit. (note 31 above), p.47. Antwerpsch Archievenblad XXI, (s.d.) pp. 1-293, pp.171, 175-76. 93 R. A. PARMENTIER: Indices op de Brugsche Poorterboeken, 2 vols., Bruges [1938], 86 SCHLUGLEIT, Op. Cit., pp. o10-o2. I, pp.408-o9. 86 VAN DER STRAELEN, op. Cit. (note 32 above), pp.25-28. 87 Ibid., p.29. On the Pand, see also F. PRIMS: 'De kunstenaars in O.L.V. ,4 PandSee L. GILLIODTS-VANte SEVEREN: 'La loterie A Bruges', La Flandre I [1867-68], pp.5-26, 80-92, I6o-95; II [1868-69], PP.408-73; III [I869-70], pp.5-I 1o. Antwerpen in 1534', Bydragen tot de geschiedenis XXIX [1938], pp.296-300o. 96 H. H. CORDEMANS: 'Une loterie de tableaux et d'objets d'art & Malines en

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There were also public sales, generally of the property mystery. The of guild regulations would seemingly have made a deceased person. The effects of the painter their Philippeexistence unthinkable, yet their existence is recorded Truffin, including many pictures, were sold by histhroughout executors the fifteenth century. Somehow, they must have at Tournai in I5O6;96 pictures appeared frequently found waysin salesof circumventing the guild regulations and their at Douai;97 and at Antwerp in 1478 the public restrictions sale on of the sale of works of art. At Arras in 1432, the tapestries confiscated by the creditors of Chancellor Abbot Hugonet of Saint-Vaast bought thirteen alabaster statues from after his execution attracted buyers of the highest ung marchant rank, d'Allemaigne.106 He seems to have been some- including the Dowager Duchess of Burgundy, thingMargaret more than of a glorified peddler, for the statues bought York. 98 The Antwerp Guild of St Luke claimed the from privilege, him became the centrepiece of an elaborate altar-piece, challenged by the old clothes dealers in 1504 ofand which 1508, the ofwings were painted by and holding auctions of the belongings of deceased which members the Abbot of was anxious to show off to visiting Cardi- the Guild.99 nals and other dignitaries during the Peace Congress of It remains to discuss the importance of the great annual Arras in 1435.107 At Amiens in 1456, the civic authorities Fairs as markets for works of art. As the guild privileges were purchased from Baudin Elles, marchant de ymages du pays suspended during the Fairs, this was the only time when d'Alemagne, a painting on cloth of the Crucifixion, to be used pictures might be freely imported from outside. But much of as a protective covering for a picture recently commissioned the business of the local artists seems to have been transacted from .108 A picture dealer, Claes van at the Fairs. The respected, though often impecunious, , coopman van schilderien, is cited in a Louvain docu- Ghent painter Daniel de Rijke obviously counted on doing ment of 1460, when he brought a lawsuit against a painter good business at the Ghent Fair, for in 1462 he bought a gold in his employ.'09 Lievin de Bus, marchand d'images, born at signet, promising to pay at the time of the next Fair.'00 Ghent, became a burgess of Valenciennes in 1509.110 In the sixteenth century (the fifteenth-century records Dealers came eventually to be received into the Antwerp have not survived) competition was acute among the Guild of St Luke: Jan Meduwael, beeldvercoopere, became painters of Ghent and Bruges for the best stalls at the master of the Guild in 1518.111 At least two print dealers Fairs.101 A Spanish traveller, Pero Tafur, visiting one of the were members of the Bruges Guild of Illuminators in the Fairs of Antwerp in 1438, wrote that 'pictures of every second half of the fifteenth century,112 and in 1472 a print kind' were on sale at the Franciscan convent (en un monas- dealer at Louvain who had supplied a painter with 'prints terio de Sant Franfisco se vende todo lo de pintura) ;102 and when and images' and had not been paid, brought an action to in 1466 the Medici wanted Netherlandish pictures to decor- recover his debt.113 ate their Palace in Florence, their Bruges agent went to the There were those who dealt in works of art on the side, Antwerp Fair to buy them.103 In the I480's the Antwerp and but whose principal occupation had little to do with paint- Brussels Painters' Guilds arranged that all works of art sold ing. In 1426 a blacksmith sold to the magistrates of Lille an at the Antwerp Fairs should be sold from their premises in elaborate and expensive triptych to decorate the new chapel Onser Liever Vrouwen Pand.'04 The number of commissions of their assembly hall;114 and in 1498 a cleric sold to the and sales secured by Antwerp and Brussels artists at the magistrates of Mons a framed picture of the Judgement of Antwerp Fairs gives some indication of their importance as Cambyses.115 Generally, however, the principal dealers may markets.105 have been the painters themselves. In 1464 the Ghent painter Daniel de Rijke bought, from different sources, an 4. Dealers and the Export Trade altar-piece and a small picture;11n in 1481 the Louvain The activities of dealers in works of art are shrouded in painter Jan Stevens was commissioning pictures from an Antwerp painter, Lauwerys de Witte;"17 in 1534 at Bruges the painter Ysenbrandt was commissioning several small 1559', Bulletin du Cercle archeologique, littiraire et artistique de Malines II [1891], pictures from another Bruges painter, Jan van Eekele; 8s and PP.343-63: the passage quoted occurs on p.348. See also the licence to hold the lottery, printed in PINCHART, op. Cit. (note 58 above), pp.322-23. 96 DE LA GRANGE and CLOQUET, op. cit. (note 5 above), II, p.263. 97 ASSELIN and DEHAISNES, op. cit. (note 14 above), passim. 98 PINCHART, op. cit. (note 70 above), pp.71-72. 106 LORIQUET, Op. Cit. (note 6 above), pp.69-7o. 99 VAN DER STRAELEN, op. cit. (note 32 above), pp.36-37. 107 Ibid., pp.69-72; A. DE LE TAVERNE, lournal de la paix d'Arras, ed. I. COLLART, 100 DE BUSSCHER, op. cit. (note 7 above), p.197 note 2; see also v. VAN DER Paris [1651], p.12. HAEGHEN: 'Ryke (Daneel de)', in B.N.B., XX, Brussels [1908-io], cols. 108 DURAND, op. cit. (note 57 above), p.2 I4. 669-72, col. 670. 109 VAN EVEN [I866], p.264. 101 See, for example, w. H. J. WEALE: 'Albert Cornelis', Le Beffroi I [18631, pp. 110 DE LA FONS-MELICOCQ, op. Cit. (note 28 above), p.232. 1-22, p.2; idem, 'Peintres brugeois: les Claiessins', A.S.E.B. LXI [1911], 111 ROMBOUTS and VAN LERIUS, op. Cit. (note 5 above), p.89. 112 Pieter van Middembliic, prentvercoopere (1481/82-94) and Maertin van pp.26-76, p.27; VAN DER HAEGHEN, op. Cit. (note 41 above), pp.332-46. On fairs, see J.-A. VAN HOUTTE: 'Les foires dans la Belgique ancienne', Recueils de la Axele, de prenter coper (1490-92) : see WEALE, op. cit. (note 2x above), pp.307-25, Socite' Jean Bodin, V, La foire, Brussels [1953], PP.175-205. 320-22. 102 M. JIMENEZ DE LA ESPADA, ed.: Andanfas d viajes de Pero Tafur (1435-1439) 113 VAN EVEN [I866], pp.287-88. (Coleccion de libros espaftoles raros 6 curiosos, VIII), Madrid [18741, p.259. 114 J. HOUDOY: La Halle ichevinale de la ville de Lille r235-1664, Lille and Paris 103 R. DE ROOVER: The Rise and Decline of the Medici Bank (Harvard Studies in [1870], p.49. Business History, XXI), Cambridge, Mass. [1963], pp.I44, 435 note 15. On Ixx DEVILLERS, op. cit. (note 32 above), pp.450-51. the Antwerp Fairs, see H. VAN DER WEE: The Growth of the Antwerp Market and lasV. VAN DER HAEGHEN: 'Ryke (Daneel de)', in B.N.B. XX, Brussels [1908- the European Economy, 3 vols. (Universit6 de Louvain, Recueil de travaux Io], cols. 669-72, col. 670. d'histoire et de philologie, 4e s6r. fascs. 28-30), Louvain [1963], II, pp.18-28 117 VAN EVEN [1867], PP.453-54. 118R. A. PARMENTIER: 'Bronnen voor de geschiedenis van het Brugsche 37-41, 73-83, etc. 104 See note 87 above. schildersmilieu in de XVIe eeuw (vervolg), IX, Adriaan Isenbrandt', 105 See ASAERT, op. Cit. (note 31 above), passim. R.B.A.H.A. IX [I9391, PP-229-65, p.236. 196

This content downloaded from 35.176.47.6 on Sat, 05 Jan 2019 07:22:28 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms THE ART MARKET IN THE SOUTHERN NETHERLANDS IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY in 1519, again at Bruges, Ambrosius Benson Strozzi, hadthen atto Bruges, bring sent an to his mother in Florence action against to recover severaltwo coffersNetherlandish contain- pictures, all of religious subjects ing pictures and a pattern book which except David one of a hadpeacock. taken She kept a Holy Face, but the rest from him."19 Assuredly these painters she was were to resell not and buying,she intended to make a handsome commissioning or illegally seizing pictures profit.127 for By the their sixteenth own century, Netherlandish pictures diversion, but were intending to resell were them. available Indeed, for sale inin Italy a in alarming quantities. In Ghent lawsuit of 1514, the painter Joos I535 Sammelins, Mattheo de Nasar accused offered 300 Flemish pictures to the by the Painters' Guild of illegally importing Duke of Mantua,pictures who to bought sell 120 of them.'28 It is not clear at Ghent, could claim that the painter's whether profession the Netherlandish consisted end of this export trade was in not only in painting pictures but also inthe dealing hands of in Italian them. merchants He acting as dealers, but it further stated that he was performing seems great probable services that to the the Italians may have acquired the city, for he was obliged to go, at great paintings expense, - especially to Antwerp, in such vast quantities - from Nether- Malines and elsewhere to look for landishpictures dealers such rather asthan the direct from the painters. Ghent painters could not or would not In produce, 1529 Fran

119R. A. PARMENTIER: 'Beschieden omtrent Brugsche schilders van de 16e eeuw, I. Ambrosius Benson', A.S.E.B. LXXX [1937], pp.89-129, PP-92-94. 120 VAN DER HAEGHEN, op. cit. (note 41 above), pp.164-78. 121 Ibid., pp.149-52; see also v. VAN DER HAEGHEN: 'Les peintres Sammelins' 127 C GUASTI, ed.: Lettere di una gentildonna fiorentina del secolo XV, Florence Bulletijn der M.G.O.G. XIX [1911], PP-55-79. [18771, pp.223-26, 229-31. 122 WEISS, op. cit. (note I8 above) [1956], pp. I, 15. 128 A. LUZIO: La galleria dei Gonzaga, Milan [1913], p.30. 123J. LAVALLEYE: Les primitifsflamands, II. Repertoire ... I, Collections d'Espagne, 129 L. CIMBER and F. DANJOU, Archives curieuses de l'histoire de France, Iere serie I, Antwerp [19531, P-36. III, Paris [1835], pp.81-82. Jehan Duboys is perhaps the painter Jan de 124 In 1450 and 1451 the Este arranged payments to Rogier van der Weyden Booze, master at Antwerp in 1519 (ROMBOUTs and VAN LERINS, op. Cit. (note 5 through Paolo de Porio in Brussels: see J. A. CROWE and G. B. CAVALCASELLE: above), p.92). The Early Flemish Painters, 2nd ed., London [1872], p.2o8 note 3. 130 W. H. J. WEALE: 'Comptes de la fabrique de 1'glise de Saint-Gilles a 125 A. GRUNZWEIG: Correspondance de lafiliale de Bruges des Medici, I (Commission Bruges (suite)', La Flandre II [1868-691, PP.51-75, I44-52, I99-220, pp.202, royale d'histoire), Brussels [19311], passim. 59. For Pieter Voghelare, see VANDEN HAUTE, op. Cit. (note 23 above), p.36. 126 S. SCHNEEBALG-PERELMAN: 'Le r6le de la banque des Medicis dans la diffu- 131 W. H. J. WEALE: 'Peintres brugeois: les Prevost', A.S.E.B. LXII [1912], sion des tapisseries flamandes', R.B.A.H.A. XXXVIII [I969], pp.19-41. pp.144-69, p.151.

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Netherlands and to a period sosioned long asmay a century. have been It can common be practice. Collaboration stated with some confidence that invites the art specialisation, market was quite which would also have been en- highly organized, and that the couragedcommercialisation by the existenceof artistic of dealers. The Guilds were production, often considered beginning characteristic to relax of some the ofearly their monopolies and controls on sixteenth century, was well production,under way inand the were fifteenth coming to accept the existence of century. While it is impossible dealers. to produce Though even it approximate is not possible to assess the importance of statistics, it seems more than probablethe dealers that or only the relativelydevelopment of the Fairs of Antwerp as few pictures were commissioned, great and centralized that this markets proportion in works of art, such factors must was in constant decline. It is havenot exceptionalcombined, with to find the effortstwo of the painters themselves painters collaborating on one commission, at their annual and collaboration congresses, to encourage an erosion of between workshops on pictures narrowly which localizedwere not traditions. commis-

HUGH BRIGSTOCKE

A date for G. C. Procaccini's 'Apotheosis of St Carlo' in Dublin

A letter from the Roman artist Antonio Mariani to Cardinal now in Dublin, it must also have been completed no later Federico Borromeo, dated 24 7bre 1628, and published by than 14th November 1625 when Giulio Cesare died, since L. Beltrami in 1909, in his introduction to a new edition of it is not listed in the inventory of his studio made on I9th Federico Borromeo's Musaeum,1 provides valuable evidence, November 1625.3 hitherto overlooked, for dating the completion of G. C. Carandente has already shown that the Dublin picture by Procaccini's vast picture of The Apotheosis of St Carlo Borromeo, G. C. Procaccini was in the church of S. Maria Traspontina now in Dublin (Fig.2), to the years 1624/25. in by 1673 when it was acquired by Maratta who had Beltrami published the letter (reprinted as an appendix, been commissioned to paint a copy of reduced size.4 The p.2o3) to illustrate an aspect of Federico's activity as anecessary evidence for identifying this picture with the collector and patron: his efforts to obtain copies for his picture of the same subject seen by Mariani in the church of museum, from Mariani and others, of pictures by earlier S. Carlo, Rome, by 1628, is to be found in G. Mola's two masters such as Raphael, Luini, Correggio, and Gaudenzio testaments, dated 1631 and 1640, which have been published Ferrari. It is clear from Mariani's letter that he had received by Bertolotti.5 In the 1631 will Mola expresses the wish that a complaint from the Cardinal about his alleged failure to his picture of St Carlo (the artist's name is not given) should imitate correctly the manner of Michelangelo and Raphael. be transferred from the Hospital of San Carlo al Corso to S. Although Mariani is diplomatic enough to admit his short- Maria Traspontina. 'Voglio anco che il suddetto Hospitale di San comings, he then ripostes with a well-aimed attack on the Carlo paghi scudi 50 l'anno o rassegni io luoghi di monti alla chiesa contemporary Milanese style of painting and points out that della Traspontina in Borgo alla quale anco debba consegnare la mia such Milanese pictures as had been seen recently in Rome tavola di San Carlo, se di gia non sara da me consegnata, per had been condemned for their 'contorni pi del naturale'. As an adornare l'altare di San Carlo in detta chiesa, e voglio che li Padri example - and it is at this point that the letter becomes pro tempore di detta Chiesa siano tenuti in perpetuo celebrare una relevant to the Dublin picture - he cites a picture of St Carlo messa . . .' By 1640 the transfer of the picture had already and St Michael by an unspecified Milanese artist which had taken place, but by this time Mola had again changed his been commissioned, but then rejected, by Gaspar Mola in plans, and expresses the wish that the picture, now attributed Rome. '. . . un quadro d'un S. Carlo, e S. Michele, et altre figure for the first time to G. C. Procaccini, should be given back fatte per fierezza, e mandatocelo e poi rifiutato, il qual quadro hoggi to the church of San Carlo al Corso and replaced in S. di e in S Carlo di Roma, quale ce l'ha messo il sudetto Gaspar Maria Traspontina with another, together with a new marble Mola .. .' The date of Mola's commission is not known, but altar. 'Che sifaccia detto altare di marmo ed altre pietre mischie et since he did not apparently reach Rome until late 1624 or si spenda sino alla somma di scudi mille e non voglio che vi stia la early 1625 it is unlikely that the picture described by ancona che vi e adesso di S. Carlo e S. Michele per essere troppo Mariani was sent to him there before that date.2 Even grande, ma che questa sia data a S. Carlo del Corso e la mettano all' allowing for delays in delivery, this evidence strongly sug- altare grande et e di mano di Giulio Cesare Procaccini, et caso non gests that the painting was not finished earlier than 1624. sia messa all'altare grande sia dell'heredita insieme con gli altri And if I am correct in believing that the picture described by Mariani is the Apotheosis of St Carlo by G. C. Procaccini, 3 This inventory was discovered byN. Pevsner in theArchivio di Stato, Milan, Filza 27634, but remains unpublished. My transcription of this inventory will 1 L. BELTRAMI: II museo del Cardinale Federico Borromeo. (Preface to translation of be printed in a forthcoming article in the Berliner Jahrbuch. Federico Borromeo's Musaeum by L. Gasselli) [i909], pp.ix-x. * Cf. G. CARANDENTE in Attivitd della Soprintendenza alle Gallerie del Lazio, Rome 2 See A. BERTOLOTTI: Artisti Lombardi a Roma nei secoli xv, xvi, xvii [188I], II, [1969], where Maratta's copy is reproduced. pp. 191-92. SA. BERTOLOTTI, op. cit., II, p.204 f. 198

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